The present invention relates to a plate for hot pressing which is suitable for being used for a process of collating and laminating base materials constituting a contactless type IC card to perform their thermo-compression bonding. The present invention further relates to a hot press apparatus and a card manufacturing apparatus.
A contactless type IC card (hereinafter, referred to as an IC card simply) has been conventionally known. A signal can be read from and written in the IC card by the use of a radio wave or the like. The IC card can communicate with a system in the state of being put in a pocket or a bag. The IC card is composed of a laminated body of a plurality of card constituting base materials laminated on one another. An example of its construction is shown in FIG. 19. An IC card 1 is formed by the thermo-compression bonding of at least packaging materials 9a and 9b and the like on both sides of an antenna substrate 3 on which an IC chip 2 is mounted.
The IC chip 2 is adhered at a prescribed position on the antenna substrate 3 with heat, e.g. of 180° C. to 250° C., and a contact pressure, e.g. of 800 g, with an anisotropic conductive film 5 put between the IC chip 2 and the antenna substrate 3. A bump (not shown) formed on an under surface of the IC chip 2 is electrically connected to a circuit pattern on the antenna substrate 3. The sealing of the bonded IC chip 2 is processed with sealing materials 6a and 6b, and thereby conduction property of the IC chip 2 is ensured. As the sealing materials 6a and 6b, an epoxy thermosetting adhesive containing 10% of filler is generally used. Moreover, with an object of protecting the IC chip 2 solidified with the sealing materials 6a and 6b, the top surface and the under surface of the IC chip 2 is reinforced by being nipped with reinforcing plates 7a and 7b made of stainless steel or the like. An upper packaging material 9a and a lower packaging material 9b are respectively adhered on the top surface and the under surface of the antenna substrate 3, on which the assembling of the IC chip 2 has been completed, with heat, e.g. of 100° C. to 200° C., and a pressure, e.g. of one ton per a card, with adhesive layers 8a and 8b between the packaging materials 9a and 9b and the reinforcing plates 7a and 7b, respectively. Thereby, a laminated body (solid white card) C1 of them is made. The antenna substrate 3 and the upper and the lower packaging materials 9a and 9b are considered to be base constituting materials of the IC card 1.
After that, magnetic stripe layers 10a and 10b, magnetic stripe masking layers 11a and 11b, printing ink layers 12a and 12b, and the like are bonded by thermo-compression bonding as the need arises. Thereby, a completed card body C2 is manufactured. Then, the card body C2 is made to be the IC card 1 through an external form punching process to a standard size based on the IC chip 2 (FIG. 20).
Now, a large sized vacuum multistage press has conventionally been used for manufacturing the IC card 1 constructed as mentioned above. In the vacuum multistage pressing system, an IC card constituting base material on which the antenna substrate 3 having the IC chip 2 installed thereon and the packaging materials 9a and 9b are located and collated in the order of laminating is loaded into a pressing machine disposed in a vacuum chamber of a large size, and the inside of the vacuum chamber is drawn to vacuum up to a prescribed pressure. After that, each process of preheating processing, thermo-compression bonding processing and cooling processing is executed, and thereby a plurality of IC cards is manufactured at a time.
In the vacuum multistage pressing system, a cycle from deaeration of the inside of the vacuum chamber to rise in temperature and cooling of the pressing machine needs a long time. Accordingly, six sets to twelve sets of IC card constituting base materials on which, for example, sheets having a size of 18 card surfaces (almost A3 size) are collated and laminated are loaded into the vacuum chamber at a time to increase a stocking quantity. Thereby, productivity is secured.
In thermo-compression bonding of a laminated body of a plurality of constituent base materials such as the IC card 1, it is very important to eliminate air remaining between each constituent base material as much as possible. In the case where vacuum deaeration is incomplete, for example, as shown in FIG. 21A and FIG. 21B, standing air 13 and 14 formed around the IC chip 2 and the other places is dispersed into all directions and then is compressed at the time of the thermo-compression bonding. There may be a case where deaeration paths to the outside of the card disappear owing to hot press fusion of the adhesive layers 8a and 8b (FIG. 19) and dispersed air bubbles are confined within the card. As a result, voids (not adhered region) 15 shown in FIGS. 22A and 22B occur on a surface of the card after the thermo-compression bonding. The voids 15 cause a bad outward appearance of the card. Moreover, if the voids 15 are located at a cutting layer of the most external shape of the punching of the card, there is the possibility of exfoliation of the packaging materials 9a and 9b owing to the decrease of adhesive strength.
That is, the above-mentioned vacuum multistage pressing system not only needs a long time for the deaeration within the vacuum chamber, but also sometimes produces void faults owing to the insufficiency of the deaeration despite the long time deaeration processing.
Moreover, the vacuum multistage pressing system makes the pressing machine in the vacuum chamber bear a heating function and a cooling function to execute each process of preheating, thermo-compression bonding and cooling continuously. However, its manufacturing cycle time until the lamination and the adhesion of the card constituting base materials have been finished is long, and then the vacuum multistage pressing system has weakness of securing its productivity and its mass productivity. Moreover, the vacuum multistage pressing system has a problem of being not good in its economical efficiency because its consumption energy becomes vast owing to its rapid heating and rapid cooling of the pressing machine.
For solving such problems, a plate for hot pressing 20 shown in FIG. 23 is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2000-182014. As shown in FIG. 23, in the plate for hot pressing 20, a collated and laminated plurality of card constituting base materials C is nipped by a pair of plate members 21a and 21b on its top surface and its under surface, respectively. And, a deaeration hose 24 communicating with a deaeration apparatus 23 is connected to an annular hollow ring section 22 formed at outer periphery portions of the nipped surfaces. The plate for hot pressing 20 has the construction in which the upper plate member 21a is superposed on the lower plate member 21b fixed to each end of a cross-shaped arm member 30, as shown in FIG. 24, with a sealing member 25 between the upper and the lower plate members 21a and 21b. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2000-182014 is constructed to arrange each plate for hot pressing 20 in order by divided rotation driving of an arm member 30 by the 90 degrees at a preheating press section 26, a hot press section 27, a cooling press section 28, and a waiting section 29 which the base material C is supplied to and ejected from by a transferring mechanism 31.
By the construction, because only the deaeration processing of the space between the upper and the lower plate members 21a and 21b which has a small space capacity is performed, a desired degree of vacuum can be obtained in a short time, and thereby the decrease of void faults can be achieved. Moreover, because the plate for hot pressing 20 is conveyed in order to each of the press sections 26-28 kept at prescribed temperatures respectively, its card manufacturing cycle time is shortened in comparison with that of a conventional vacuum multistage pressing system. Consequently, the improvement of its productivity and its mass productivity can be achieved, and further its energy-saving property is also improved.
However, the hollow annular ring 22 is constructed as the deaeration path in the construction of the conventional plate for hot pressing 20 having the above-mentioned construction, the escape of residual air by deformations should be secured by forming the board thicknesses of the nipped surfaces of each of the plate members 21a and 21b to be thin of about 1 mm. Consequently, when a high vacuum state is aimed, the deformations of the nipped surfaces are actualized. Hence, not only it becomes impossible to perform an appropriate hot press operation, but also there is the possibility that collation precision goes wrong owing to the deformations of the nipped surfaces. Moreover, the conventional construction has the problem of obliged restriction of the degree of freedom of designing apparatus because the deaeration hose 24 should follow to the conveyance of the plate for hot pressing 20 for keeping the vacuum pressure in the inside of the plate for hot pressing 20.
On the other hand, if the construction is noticed from the point of view of a hot press apparatus, because each of the press sections 26-28 of preheating, heating and cooling are arranged in a cluster-like state severally, it is impossible to deal with the increase of press sections, e.g. the formation of the preheating press section to be multistage, quickly. Consequently, it is very difficult to manufacture various laminated bodies appropriately in accordance with combinations of base material components.
Moreover, if the construction is noticed from the point of view of a card manufacturing apparatus, because the conveyance path of the plate for hot pressing 20 is planar, it is also impossible to install a plurality of couples of heating/cooling press sections for manufacturing various kinds of cards by the use of an apparatus in addition to the above-mentioned problems. That is, the construction is a construction disparate from a card manufacturing apparatus which can cope with various kinds and is small in size and cheap in price to have an introducing effect, all being required in the present manufacturing sites.
The present invention was made in view of the above-mentioned problems. An object of the present invention is to provide a plate for hot pressing capable of keeping the degree of vacuum in the inside thereof in the form of being separated from a deaeration apparatus while securing an appropriate hot press operation.
Moreover, it is another object of the present invention to provide a hot press apparatus which can cope with alterations of the arrangement layouts of press sections and additions of the press sections flexibly to manufacture various laminated bodies appropriately.
Moreover, it is a further object of the present invention to provide a card manufacturing apparatus which can manufacture various kinds of cards by the use of a single apparatus.